A flybarless Bell-Hiller head is an oxymoron. Flybarless heads do not incorperate Bell-Hiller technology. Bell-Hiller refers to the combination of 1940's helicopter technology from Bell (Arthur Young's stabilizer bar) and Hiller (Stanley Hiller Jr's Rotor-Matic system with paddles). Its very cool stuff if you are interested in the history of where the conventional RC helicopter rotorhead with paddles came from, but it has nothing to do with a flybarless head that uses direct swashplate to blade grip linkages.

I'd thought the same thing, but the factory description states that the system is "Bell-Hiller," only without the flybar. So, I went with that.

Ralph, thanks for the review. I always felt that SkyArtec's helis should deserve more popularity due to the good value for the price, reports of good flight performance and good technical support from the US distributor. On the other side I read reports of rather fragile plastic parts for other models. What's your impression of the strength of the landing gear of the X3V, and of the other plastic parts?

I want also say that I do not agree on the statement "Beginners, forget that plastic coaxial. Order a Wasp X3V with a set of training skids, practice on the ClearView SE simulator and get an experienced R/C helicopter pilot to place you on the path to success.". Even with training gear, beginners will crash a lot, and the size and headspeed of the X3V are going in my own opinion to cause a lot of trouble in terms of repairs and potentially other issues of greater concern (safety).

In my own opinion it does look to be a competitive choice for advanced beginners that have built some experience on a small sub-micro, easy-to-fix, flybarless CP like the McpX for example.

Ralph, thanks for the review. I always felt that SkyArtec's helis should deserve more popularity due to the good value for the price, reports of good flight performance and good technical support from the US distributor. On the other side I read reports of rather fragile plastic parts for other models. What's your impression of the strength of the landing gear of the X3V, and of the other plastic parts?

I want also say that I do not agree on the statement "Beginners, forget that plastic coaxial. Order a Wasp X3V with a set of training skids, practice on the ClearView SE simulator and get an experienced R/C helicopter pilot to place you on the path to success.". Even with training gear, beginners will crash a lot, and the size and headspeed of the X3V are going in my own opinion to cause a lot of trouble in terms of repairs and potentially other issues of greater concern (safety).

In my own opinion it does look to be a competitive choice for advanced beginners that have built some experience on a small sub-micro, easy-to-fix, flybarless CP like the McpX for example.

I admit to being a bit suspicious about the skids at first, but I think if one were to belly-flop a landing hard enough to damage the skids, there's going to be a lot more damage elsewhere. I thought they should have been stiffer as well, but they hold the weight of the model and it's an easy model to spot land, so I don't see them breaking anytime soon. So far, so good with the X3V as well as the X3 which uses the same part. Other than the skids, there's very little non-composite plastic on the model.

Thanks for pointing out the comment regarding beginners. I was careful to say that an beginner wanting to learn how to fly a CCPM heli like this absolutely needs assistance. That's also why I was careful to point out the head speed. There's no way that a raw beginner can pop in a battery and fly this little monster. A beginner who wishes to self-teach can and should fly a coaxial, of course. I meant to convey that a serious beginner who really wanted to learn R/C helicopter flight could do so with the X3V, only not without supervision.

(...)Other than the skids, there's very little non-composite plastic on the model. (...).

Good to know, it is also true that it will probably be very easy to replace if necessary the stock landig gear with some TRex 250 skids or even better the Superskids 200 or 300, as I have done on my Gaui 200s that have extremely fragile stock skids.

By the way I also have been using Clearview as simulator and I have been extremely happy with it.

3S battery would require at least a 18amp ESC and a different Pinion Gear on the Motor. Yes this is possible to do; Then it would be setup like our Skyartec V4 Belt 250 Helicopters that use a 3S battery.
We have all of the necessary parts should anyone want to contact us about this upgrade. It could be done as a DIY project or we could do it on our bench for a modest cost

Max, Are you going to have the Wasp X3V in a kit ? I dont need any more Tx's.

JD

We can provide the Wasp X3V without the transmitter for those that already have the Sky 706 Tx. We can provide the firmware upgrade to the Transmitter to upgrade it to the V series and the software settings upgrade for the FBL helicopter. The Skyartec 3 Axis Gyro / Receiver will only bind with the Skyartec Sky 706 Transmitter.

Skyartec will be releasing in the next months a independent 3 Axis Gyro that will work with any Radio System. I think you will see an amazingly low cost on this offering;

At this time we don't have a kit /frame only offering, but we might be able to work it out later next month. You would need to provide your own radio, for example.

Is the hover on that bird nothing short of amazing? Just remember to increase the agility setting on the gyro before you try and go to fast forward flight and remember that the idle up settings aren't calibrated.

It's much more agile with the CF blades, so I'd suggest adjusting the agility with them in place if you plan on using them. I've only flown it once with the CF's, but I plan to change over to them for good (despite the fact that the resin blades fly so well) and to tweak the agility before I fly it again.

Is the hover on that bird nothing short of amazing? Just remember to increase the agility setting on the gyro before you try and go to fast forward flight and remember that the idle up settings aren't calibrated.

It's much more agile with the CF blades, so I'd suggest adjusting the agility with them in place if you plan on using them. I've only flown it once with the CF's, but I plan to change over to them for good (despite the fact that the resin blades fly so well) and to tweak the agility before I fly it again.

I dont have CF blades, only stock. I noticed there doesn't seem to be a lot of cyclic travel.

The idle up isn't calibrated for 50% mid stick or other?

or maybe you mean I need to calibrate the transmitter

haven't even attempted that yet lol

You can see the idle up throttle curve in the review pictures above these postings. The Factory Sets the midpoint at 80% - above is positive pitch; below is negative pitch. Yes for more movement you will need to configure the transmitter with the software. Also increasing the agility control can give you more response for aerobatic and 3D flight
Is true, the factory shipped units do not include the the CF blades - we add a set as value added item.
The factory does not print out the manual but we include one again as a value added item. We also include our own copyrighted CD with our custom upgraded software package and program setup installer. Yes all of the instruction manuals can be found on the factory CD, in Adobe PDF format.